Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump On Wednesday, he revived the distinctive policy of his first term, and announced that citizens from 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States, while seven other citizens would face restrictions.
The ban will take effect Monday at 12:01am. This is a cushion that may avoid the confusion that was rolled out at airports around the country in 2017 when similar measures were virtually notified.
Some, but not all, of the 12 countries have also appeared on the list of countries banned during Trump's first term. The new bans include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Limitations will increase for visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
In a video released on social media, Trump said he concluded a new ban on Sunday's terrorist attacks in Boulder, Colorado, highlighting the dangers some visitors have raised. Who exaggerates the visa?. The suspects in the attack came from Egypt, a country not on Trump's restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he has overstayed tourist visas.
Trump said there are screenings and screenings that are “sufficient” in some countries, or that he historically refused to regain his citizens. His findings rely widely on the annual Homeland Security Report of visa visas for tourists, business visitors, students arriving in the air and the ocean, picking out countries with the highest percentage remaining after visas expire.
“We don't want them,” Trump said.
The inclusion of Afghanistan has angered supporters who worked to resettle its people. The ban excludes special immigration visas, Afghans, who generally worked most closely with the US government during the two-year war.
Afghanistan is also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with around 14,000 arrivals in the 12 months leading up to September 2024.
“It's a moral dishonor to include Afghanistan, the country where people have stood with American service members for 20 years. It spews out in the face of our allies, our veterans and any values we claim to support.”
Trump wrote that Afghanistan “has lacked competent or cooperative central authorities to issue passports or civil documents, and there is no appropriate screening and screening measures.” He also cited the overstare rate of that visa.
Haiti, which avoided a travel ban during Trump's first term, was included due to the high rate of overstay and numerous that came illegally to the United States. Haitians continue to flee poverty, hunger and political instability, but police and non-supporting missions fight a surge in gang violence, with armed men controlling at least 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“Haiti lacks central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of the law enforcement information needed to ensure that its people do not undermine the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote.
The Iranian government did not provide an immediate response to its inclusion. The Trump administration calls it a “national sponsor of terrorism,” and excludes visitors except those who already have a visa for the minority facing persecution, or who come to the US.
Other Middle Eastern countries on the list – Libya, Sudan and Yemen – all face ongoing civil conflict and territory overseen by opposing factions. Sudan has an aggressive war, but the Yemenian war is largely deadlocked, with Libyan forces remaining armed.
International aid groups and refugee resettlement organisations roundly condemned the new ban. “This policy is not about national security, it is about the sector and slander that seeks security and opportunity in the United States,” said Oxfam America President Abby Maxman.
The travel ban was the result of the January 20 executive order, which issued a request for the Department of National and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile reports on “hostile attitudes” towards the United States and whether entry from certain countries represents a national security risk.
During his first term, Trump issued Presidential Order In January 2017, it banned travel to the United States by citizens of seven Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
It was one of the most chaotic and confused moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those countries were either prohibited from boarding flights to the US or were detained at US airports after they landed. They included students and faculty, businessmen, tourists, and people visiting friends and family.
Orders often referred to as “Muslim bans” or “Travel bans” were modified within legal challenges until the version was made. Upheld by the Supreme Court 2018.
The ban has affected a variety of categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, as well as from government officials and their families in North Korea and Venezuela.
Trump and others defend the first ban National Securityclaiming it is intended to protect the country and not based on anti-Muslim bias. However, the president had called for an explicit ban on Muslims during the White House's first campaign.
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Amiri reported from the United Nations. Associated Press authors Rebecca Santana, John Gambrell, Ellen Nickmeyer and Danica Koto contributed to this report.
